Palin Livin': Nonpartisan Investigation Finds Palin To Have Abused Her Office In A Personal Vendetta Against Her Brother-In-Law

It's not like a trial but an independent, nonpartisan investigation into Sarah Palin's abuse of office in a pre-McCain scandal known as Troopergate, found that the Alaska governor "abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to try to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired." The report, published late yesterday, confirms that she and First Dude exerted illegal pressure on Alaska's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, to fire her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Michael Wooten.

“Such impermissible and repeated contacts,” the report states, “create conflicts of interests for subordinate employees who must choose to either please a superior or run the risk of facing that superior’s displeasure and the possible consequences of that displeasure.” The report concludes that the action was a violation of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

...In the report, the independent investigator, Stephen E. Branchflower, a former prosecutor in Anchorage, said that Ms. Palin wrongfully allowed her husband, Todd, to use state resources as part of the effort to have Trooper Wooten dismissed.

The report says she knowingly “permitted Todd Palin to use the governor’s office and the resources of the governor’s office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired.”

Further, it says, she “knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda.”

...Mr. Monegan has said that he believes he lost his job because he would not bend to pressure to dismiss Trooper Wooten. On July 28, the Legislative Council, a bipartisan body of House and Senate members that can convene to make decisions when the Legislature is not in session, approved an independent investigation into whether the governor abused the powers of her office to pursue a personal vendetta.

The McCain campaign immediately attacked the integrity of the investigator, charged it was all a plot by Obama (even though the Alaska legislature is overwhelmingly Republican and the decision to go forward with publishing the investigation was unanimous), and claimed that, somehow, the report exonerates Palin. Thursday the McCain campaign released its own "report" declaring Palin innocent of all crimes. I guess they're practicing to be just like the Bush Regime. Of course for the McCain camp this isn't considered a total loss. At least it keeps people talking about something other than McCain's record, his despicably filthy gutter campaign, and his economic plans, which were thproughly trashed by GOP economists yesterday. Like most Americans they see his buy-up-the-mortagges as a cheap gimmick and a ploy to save a failing campaign. Maybe Palin should do something really crazy-- like shooting someone in the face when she goes on SNL the weekend before the election.

Oh-- and some key excerpts from the Branchflower Report that the McCain campaign exonerates Palin:

"For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin Abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act." [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, Page 8]
 
"The Attorney General's office has failed to substantially comply with my August 6, 2008 written request to Governor Sarah Palin for information about the case in the form of emails." [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, Page 8]
 
"I find that, although Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as commissioner of Public Safety." [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, Page 8]

"Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional." [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 65]
 
"The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least, engaged in 'official action' by her inaction if not her active participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired [and there is evidence of her active participation. She knowingly, as that term is defined in the above cited statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor's office and the resources of the Governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act." [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 65-6]
 
"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda." [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 66]
 
"In this case, Governor Palin has declined to provide an interview. An interview would have assisted everyone to better understand her motives and perhaps help explain why she was so apparently intent upon getting Trooper Wooten fired in spite of the fact she knew he had been disciplined following the Administrative Investigation."  [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 66]

Most people think should be settled on a special prime time broadcast of the Jerry Springer Show featuring the entire Palin brood. 


UPDATE: PALIN GREETED BY RESOUNDING BOOS AT PHILLY HOCKEY GAME

It looks like hockey fans were more upset that Palin abused her office than they were happy to have a famous hockey mom stop by in the middle of the election campaign to grab some spotlight. Maybe she should have gone to a hockey game in Salt Lake City or Lynchburg. She was booed so loudly and lustily that she embarrassed the Republican slimebag who owns the Flyers, GOP financier Ed Snider. Snider's donation of the Flyers backdrop tonight wasn't considered a donation but this year alone he's given at least $40,000 to Republican candidates, primarily to the most sleazy of the breed, like Giuliani, Frank Wolf (R-VA), Norm Coleman (MN), David Dreier (CA), McCain, of course and a whopping $20,400 to the RNC (on June 30).

[W]when Palin came out onto the Wachovia Center ice Saturday night-- greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd-- the two hockey players who had no choice but to appear with her in that photo op were turned into props in a political campaign. If Rangers center Scott Gomez or Flyers center Mike Richards wanted to make some sort of political statement, that would be fine, but in this case, they were thrust into a situation not of their choosing. Snider put them there with his ill-advised mixing of politics and sports.

The level of discomfort has been palpable for the Rangers’ two Alaska natives, Gomez and Brandon Dubinsky, as they have been asked questions about Palin and the election in recent weeks. Dubinsky, a 22-year-old who has shied away from nothing since he broke in with the Rangers last year, looks petrified when the topic is brought up. I think both would rather play goalie in a shootout than weigh in on the presidential election.

But Gomez was stuck. He took the ceremonial puck drop because he is from Alaska and he is an alternate captain. Captain Chris Drury was quite likely relieved to be taken off that hook. The Flyers’ Mike Richards was the other uncomfortable party in that center ice get-together. It was not the first or last time Richards will hear Flyers fans howling their disapproval, but this was for nothing he did.